by Stan
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Chapter 1
Something in the Air
There was no question about it. A new season had come to Bear Country. Its signs were everywhere as Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and Cousin Freddy walked home from school. Flowers covered the lawns. Trees were in bloom. Birds were building their nests. And many of the boy and girl cubs were walking along in pairs. Some of them were even holding hands! Yes, spring had sprung in Bear Country. Romance was in the air!
“Romance,” said Brother Bear. He looked at two older cubs holding hands and made a face. “Disgusting.”
“Sickening,” said Cousin Freddy.
Sister looked up at the boys and rolled her eyes. She thought romance was great! Just to bug her brother and cousin, she started singing a well-known song:
“Beeswax!” said Brother.
“You don’t understand,” teased Sister. “It’s love that makes the world go round.”
“Double beeswax!” Brother shouted.
Freddy, who liked reading the encyclopedia for fun, also disagreed with Sister. “What makes the world go around,” he said, “is the inertial effect on our solar system of the energy generated by the Big Bang. At least, that’s the latest theory.”
“What I get a big bang out of,” said Sister, “is you two. You’re scared of girls! Why don’t you take it easy and go with the flow?”
“I’m not scared of girls!” said Brother. “Some of my best friends are girls.”
Just then they heard a girl’s voice calling out, “Brother, oh, Bro-ther! Wait up.”
“I think it’s one of your best friends,” said Sister.
Brother turned and saw Babs Bruno and some other girls from his class. They were hurrying to catch up with him. Babs’s friends were giggling.
“Hi, Babs,” said Brother.
Babs looked up at him. She smiled sweetly. “I could use some help with tonight’s math homework,” she purred. “Could you come over?”
Brother started to blush, “I—uh—I’ll call you…” Heat was creeping up from under his collar. “Maybe we can do it by phone,” he said. Brother felt his ears catch fire. He knew what that meant. He was blushing like crazy.
“I’ll be wait-ing,” sang Babs. Then she and her giggling friends ran off.
“Don’t say a word!” Brother warned Sister.
Sister opened her mouth and took hold of the tip of her tongue.
“What in the world are you doing?” said Freddy.
“Holding my tongue,” mumbled Sister. Then she let go and laughed. “Really, Brother, everyone knows Babs Bruno has a major crush on you. Why not give her a break?”
“Why don’t you give me a break?” said Brother. “Look, I like Babs. She’s nice. But I just don’t go for all this cub romance stuff. It’s phony baloney. It’s just a bunch of silly cubs trying to act grown up.”
“For example,” said Freddy. He pointed ahead.
“Well, well,” said Sister. “Looks like the on-again, off-again thing between Too-Tall Grizzly and Queenie McBear is on again.”
Freddy shook his head. “Just look at them.”
“No, thanks,” said Brother.
It looked as if the Too-Tall and Queenie thing was really on again. They weren’t just holding hands. They were hanging all over each other.
Suddenly a strange and disturbing thing happened. A truck pulled to a stop next to Queenie and Too-Tall. Two-Ton Grizzly, Too-Tall’s dad, climbed out. He grabbed Too-Tall and pulled him into the truck. Then he drove quickly away. Brother, Sister, and Freddy ran over to Queenie.
“What was that all about?” asked Brother.
“I d-don’t know!” said Queenie.
“Did Two-Ton say anything?” Sister asked.
“Yes…but it didn’t make any sense.”
“What did he say?” Freddy asked.
“He said…he said it wasn’t right for a member of the Grizzly clan to be seen with a member of the Bear clan.”
The cubs looked at one another. Queenie was right. It didn’t make sense. It seemed that romance wasn’t the only thing in the air. There was something else. Something strange. And it didn’t feel good—it didn’t feel good at all.
Copyright
BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE LOVE MATCH
Copyright © 1998 by Berenstain Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
EPub Edition © 2013
ISBN 978-0-06-218885-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Originally published in 1998 by Random House, Inc.
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062188854
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